Matt Parker
Matt Parker ''' "Welcome to the Losers Party!" Matthew "Matt" Parker is one of the main protagonists of The Thing. When Matt's best friend Billy Fleet goes missing in the winter of 1984 Matt bands together with his friends, Mike, Ben and Tommy to find him. However, during their search, they stumble upon a mysterious girl named Eight. Soon Matt and his friends began having close encounters with a 'monster', he then figured that Eight knew something about Billy's disappearance and asked her to join him in their search. During their time together Matt and Eight discovered that they had a close bond together and quickly formed crushes on each other. At the same time, Matt started having premonitions of an alternate dimension, and Eight's time in Halwick Lab and realised he could communicate with Eight without speaking. During the final battle with the monster, Matt unlocks his power shocking his friends when he uses them to kill government agents hunting Eight, and being able to throw the monster about using his 'powers'. After Billy is found Matt is happy put is saddened by Eight's sacrifice to defeat the monster. Still devastated and angered by Eight's disappearance around a year later, Matt tried to find her using his powers but something blocked him. A new girl Riley, joins the group and Tommy and Ben begin to fight over her affections. Matt doesn't really get on with her at first, but he sees a bit Eight in her and they begin to grow closer. Matt helps Billy get over his PTSD after the events of the week beginning the 6th, however, the monsters of the alternate dimension return with this monster creeping into the town of Halwick terrorizing Matt and his friends. After a message from Eight, they reunite after Matt snaps her out of a catatonic state by kissing her. Matt along with the Loser's Party overcome their fear of the monster and using weapons and powers they beat the monster into submission and Eight and Matt use their physic abilities to close the portal between Earth and the alternate dimension, however unknown to him the monster managed to split apart of itself and buried it deep in a garage waiting for a chance to rise again and take revenge on the Loser's Party and the town of Halwick. During the hot summer of 1986 a few months later, Matt's romantic relationship with Eight continues to blossom much to the annoyance of their friends and Eight's adopted father Officer Jones who tries to complicate it. However, Matt and Eight truly love each other so they ignore Officer Jones' advances who eventually gets over it. They learn that the 'Thing' is back and it has possessed their school bully, Mason Bowen and instructed him to hunt and kill the Loser party. Mason kidnaps Matt to use him as bait and take him to the mall, Mason and his army of possessed humans take on the Losers party eventually freeing an injured Matt who fights with Mason using his powers to defeat him. Mason is eventually killed when he falls of a high ledge falling into a burst of fire. However, the Thing wasn't vanquished and Mason used his dying breaths to re-open the portal. The Thing rises again bursting up out of the sewers a month later in a giant spider-like form and kidnaps the Loser's by possessing a police officer who knocks them all out and takes them to Feibolt House and presents them to Thing who kills the officer. Matt wakes up first and battles Thing as it takes the form off Eight who taunts him and begins punching him, but Matt is powerless to attack the girl he loves. He is saved by Eight who throws Thing into the wall, Thing then changes into one of the guards at Halwick Lab and attack Eight who conquers her fear and use her powers to snap the bones of the guard forcing the Thing back into Stitches the Clown. The Loser's band together in a physic battle and kill Thing by crushing its heart killing it forever. The Feibolt House crumbles into nothing and the sewers cave in and Matt uses his powers to save his friends and they escape the crumbling, flooding and stormy Halwick. = History Matt Parker/History Personality and Traits Matt is shown to be an optimist, morally compassionate and highly committed to his friends, usually going to great lengths to help them. Matt is also an extremely creative thinker which helps him defeat the monster, also he is an out of the box thinker which allows him to theorize where Billy actually disappeared into an alternate dimension. He is the most emotionally open and willing to accept fantastical explanations behind complex situations. While his friends were initially sceptical about Eight, Mike wholeheartedly trusted her to guide them and even developed a close relationship with her. Matt's slightly unorthodox approach led him to connect some of the dots explaining the mysterious Downside. Matt's sheer dedication to helping his friends was so great that at one point, he jumped off the cliff (when threatened by Mason) to protect Ben before Eight came to rescue him. He also showed great protective qualities when it comes to Eight snapping at Mason for insulting her calling her a "freak". Even after Billy was saved, Matt perceived that Billy was struggling due to his connection with the Downside and tried to help him. Matt was also the only one out of his friends to stay with Will in the lab when he was suffering from memory loss and was manipulated by The Thing trying to kill them, proving that he was always ready to put himself in harm's way to protect his friends. When Eight disappeared he was traumatized and suffered PTSD flashbacks of her and beginning to have hallucinations of her calling him in and visions of her in the fort he made for her. Also when The Thing returned and began scaring the Loser's Party members it turned into Eight and nearly lured Matt into his death before Mike dragged him away which annoyed Matt at first before realising he'd just saved him and gave him a hug. When he was reunited with her he used all of his love for her to snap her out of her catatonic state bursting out into tears, he also risked his life and ran (a bit recklessly) into the fight protecting defying Jones' orders for him and to stay in the house. This shows the impulsive and reckless side to Matt which has got him into trouble a few times for example nearly getting killed by The Thing, but on a positive side Matt is very artistic and is good at drawing which allowed him to draw the monster and he also drew a picture of Eight which she loved. However, The Thing realised that Matt seemed to be the leader and seized them offering to the Loser's Party that if he was allowed to take and feast on Matt he'd go away and leave them all alone. Matt apologises, especially to Eight for dragging them into this fight, However, the Party did this out of love and dedication for each other and Tommy found a moment for bravery and saved his life hitting the Thing over the face with a baseball bat. Abilities & Powers * '''Cycling '''Matt is great at riding his trusty bike and is the fastest rider behind Riley, and with his time with Eight, he has learnt to ride faster even with someone else on it. * '''Psychic Abilities Matt was born with Physic Abilities due to his mother's prolonged exposure to LSD, isolation tanks and a mix of other drugs as a result of his mother being an MKUltra test subject. However, these abilities were not found out and he is allowed into the real world. Matt's powers unlocked when he was around eight years old when he accidentally made a baseball fly into the air, this was witnessed by Billy who was told by Matt's mother to keep them secret. Matt's powers would occasionally affect the nearby electricity; when attempting psychic communication, nearby lights would sometimes flicker or even go out entirely. Matt's powers take a physical toll on his body causing him to have major nosebleeds if he overexerts himself, or if he has used his powers for a prolonged period of time. He also has major headaches after using his powers at first but after using them for a few years and practising them on smaller objects. * '''Telekinesis '''Matt is able to manipulate objects, people and creatures with his mind. When amplified by his emotions, his telekinesis is strong enough to lift large and heavy objects however Matt has difficulty controlling his power and it takes him more mental strain to use them. Matt could also use this ability to attack and cause physical damage to people (primarily in self-defence), even being able to affect internal organs to some extent; he was able to squeeze Mason's bladder in order to make him urinate himself and later broke his arm. Additionally, he has thrown people against walls on several instances, broken the neck of a security guard at Hawkins Lab, and was even able to crush the brains of several agents at once. * '''Levitation '''Matt is able to lift others and himself and make them float in the air, he was able to lift the monster in the air and throw it into a wall, he was able to save Eight when she was thrown off a cliff by . He can also suspend people in the air shown when he was able to freeze Harry in place and stop him from attacking Tommy. *